Book Fair

Su Casa and half a dozen kids from Marshfield Avenue went to the Hyde Park Children's Book Fair this afternoon. We got street parking right away for three vehicles, including the 15-passenger van I was driving. A miracle! Everybody clapped for my parallel parking job. Whew!

I brought money so all the kids with me--Sarah, Jay-Z, and four Brady Girls--could each buy at least one book. The girls all went to the half price book outlet and got two or three apiece. Good shoppers! Barbara's Bookstore was there and selling discounted children's books. Jay-Z got a fancy book of pirateology for six bucks, reduced from $20.

They had a lot of fun activities, too. The kids made bookmarks with cool stamps at the MCA booth, got their faces painted and jumped through the most elaborate moonwalk/jumping jack I've ever seen. A couple of them took home "Gardens in a Glove" put together by teens working at the Museum of Science and Industry.

They met Strawberry Shortcake, Raggedy Ann and a couple of literary characters I didn't know. Mother Goose read them a book. Once again, they saw the nice playgrounds in Hyde Park and just wanted to play, so that's what they did. At the end, some of the girls found the Oriental Institute booth and took rubbings of heiroglyphics. They want to go to the Mummy Night in October. If Su Casa wants to go, maybe we can do that, too.

As we were walking back to the cars, I asked what they liked best. "I didn't have a best thing," said one Brady Girl. "Everything was wonderful."

Back in the van, I heard the girls whisper "one-two-three," then they yelled, "Thank you, Maritza!" They are so cute.